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Margo Howard and Franklin Foer

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from: Margo Howard

The Candid and the Canned

Posted Wednesday, Dec. 8, 1999, at 2:01 PM ET

Massa Honey:

So was Rockefeller really the vice president and I missed it? As for Puff Daddy, isn't he the one who dates the girl with the much discussed big behind? As you may have gleaned, this is not my kinda' music ... making him, I guess, not my kinda' guy. And whatever happened, anyway, to names like "Mel Torme," and "Tony Bennett"?

But back to politics, where they have names like Bauer and McCain and Bush. A kind reader let me know the kind of doll I was thinking Bauer looked like: a kewpie. Well ... Liddy Dole is out of the race ... maybe he could make it work for him.

As for McCain, who I admit to liking enormously, Howie Kurtz this morning tells me why. It's because the guy's mouth is on a trolley--just like mine! Kurtz says, "The Arizona senator rambles on about politics, the military, taxes ... his wife's ex-boyfriend ..." And this is my fave: "He blabs and banters and jokingly called an Associated Press reporter a 'jerk.' " You know, Massa Honey, honesty is hard to come by these days, and it is refreshing beyond belief. Too bad for the AP guy, though.

Kurtz goes on to say that "aides sometimes cringe at McCain's flights of candor." Well, yes, but the rest of us are enthralled. OK, some of the rest of us. Any candidate who says, "I hate the French" and calls the Vietnamese "gooks" and basically gets away with it--with the press corps, at least--has really good karma and should not be dismissed out of hand.

Speaking of things genuine, it seems the handlers of the Texas governor are having second thoughts about letting him get out there in the debates and just "be himself." Himself is looking dumb and programmed, or is it stiff and smug? Some former supporters, according to the Boston Globe, are deciding he is coming across as, er, "unqualified" to be president. And while they're considering a makeover, perhaps they'll deep-six the phrase "compassionate conservative." That really is a little like a pregnant virgin. And of course this is the wrong season to be making such an analogy. (Now do you see why I feel kinship with McCain?) In any case, I do not think my fellow Americans are up for someone who says what he's actually thinking, so it's probably ta-ta, J. McC. Tant pis. Which proves, obviously, that I don't hate the French. So au revoir, Massa Honey. It's a great day in Harvard Square, and I'm a goin' on out there to read my Esther Williams book--having loaned my copy of the Dean Acheson book to Dubya.

xxM.

the breakfast table
entries
12345678910111213141516
from: Margo Howard

The Candid and the Canned

Posted Wednesday, Dec. 8, 1999, at 2:01 PM ET
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Margo Howard is "Dear Prudence," Slate's advice columnist. Franklin Foer, a former Slate staff writer, writes about politics for U.S. News & World Report.
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